The present disclosure relates to a zoom lens suitable as an interchangeable lens attachable to, for example, a digital single-lens reflex camera, and an image pickup unit using such a zoom lens.
As recording measures in digital cameras, there is known a method of recording a subject image formed on a plane of an image pickup device, such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) or a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor), using photoelectric transducers through converting, based on a light amount, the subject image into an electric output by the photoelectric transducers. In recent years, image pickup devices have a larger number of pixels with the advance of processing techniques and the like, and recording of higher spatial frequency is possible. Accordingly, it is necessary for optical systems to achieve an improvement in imaging performance for a higher-frequency component.
In recent years, with the spread of digital single-lens reflex cameras, a high-power all-in-one zoom lens covering a range from wide-angle to telephoto is in large demand as an interchangeable lens. Besides being necessary for such an interchangeable lens to have high imaging performance, it is desirable that the interchangeable lens be small and lightweight, since the interchangeable lens is often carried while being attached to a camera body.